Joystiq is reporting that Obsidian Entertainment has laid off a number of employees this week, though the exact number of affected employees was not clear as of this writing. The news comes from Obsidian's official forums and an unnamed tipster who sent them the following information:

"Another project canceled, this time for a future next-gen project and the layoffs impacted that team, plus the existing South Park team," a tipster wrote Joystiq. "Approximately 20-30 people from all disciplines, including one person who started yesterday, as well as one who started last week."

The forum post in question, found here, offers further evidence of layoffs from various sources including altered LinkedIn profiles of former employees and tweets from former staff. Examples include graphic designer Jason Sereno (who was working on South Park RPG), level designer Dini McMurry (also worked on the South Park game), and junior character artist J.D. Cerince.

Obsidian has not confirmed the layoffs. We'll continue to follow this story as it develops.

Comments

This saddens me. Obsidian's managed to disappoint me more than anything else, but after the Game Informer article I was really looking forward to that South Park RPG. I hope the layoffs don't show in the form of a KOTOR2 ending or something.